💲On track for 1000€ MRR in 2021 💲
by Oliver SchmidtI would like to give you a short insight into my business at the end of the year and an outlook on 2021.
I learned a lot this year about how to turn my app from a hobby into a business. In terms of sales numbers, progress this year has been relatively slow but I've learned enough to make big strides in 2021.
My goal in 2021: 1000€ (= 1200$) MRR
The main focus in 2021 will be on user retention. According to Firebase, 15% of users currently continue to use the app after it has been installed for 1 day. This is still a very poor figure, but compared to 6-8% at the beginning of the year, it is progress. I am now familiar enough with analysis tools and A/B testing to further increase this value.
1-day user retention goal for 2021: 40%
Less focus will be on general marketing activities in the new year to increase the download numbers. At the beginning of the year I had about 1300 downloads per month and now at the end of the year 7500 downloads per month. This is a big progress. I will try to increase the download numbers with a better presentation of the app in the Play Store (better screenshots, new icon etc.). I do not plan any further marketing activities such as advertising in 2021. My biggest weakness is currently user retention and this is where I will invest most of my time.
Finally, the sales figures from 2020:
Total revenue: 1.187€ (= 1460$)
In January I earned 20€ and in the last 3 months I earned 100-150€ per month.
I wish all IndieHackers - members a successful and healthy new year 2021! 🎉
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That's awesome, I'm working on a similar app Mealplanr, my focus is help people plan their foods and reach their body goal, what food database are you using in your app?
Here is my landing page https://mealplanr.app
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Thank you! I wish you much success for your app. What is the unique selling point of your app? Will it be available for iOs and Android right from the start?
My food database is compiled from various sources. I have written myself a program that compiles food from various free sources. One example is OpenFoodFacts: https://world.openfoodfacts.org/
However, I don't use the raw data from OpenFoodFacts, because there is also a lot of data garbage in there. My program filters the data first and increases the data quality.
What food database are you using?
I would be happy if we stay in touch and learn from each other :)
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Thanks for the support I wish you all the best as well for your app.
I feel like that counting calories is the basic that my app can offer, but I want people to reach their goal without worry to much about counting calories, another is key is the meal generation taking in account their macros/goal because I know that the first problem about eating and eating well is not knowing what to eat, on top of that I will add the social network feature to allow users to interact with others that share the same goal and or are similar as a person.
I scraped recipes from various website, I had a look on openfoodfact and had the same feeling as you but haven't had the gut to clean/improve the data, you could offer an API to access your database using https://saasify.sh for example to create another stream of revenue, I might be your first user.
The app will be available on both iOS and Android, I use react native for that.
I've seent that you have a lot of download which is awesome do you find it hard to monetize?
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I have already thought about an API :) But currently the focus is more on the app itself. But maybe I will do that someday.
Yes it is a bit difficult. But that's mainly due to my current poor user retention rate. The unique selling point of my app is its simplicity. Many calorie counting apps are overloaded and complicated. My app offers a way to count calories quickly without having to spend a lot of time learning how it works. Some users who download my app may have the wrong expectation about my app. Others love it because they say there is nothing like it anywhere else.
I'm trying to find a balance between adding more features, but not discarding the basic idea of my app. Improvements to existing features are also on the agenda.
A general tip from me is that customer retention rate is more important than the number of downloads. You can have 100,000 downloads per month but if you can't keep your users for a long time, you won't make any revenue.
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You are right, and to be honest I think a lot about engagement and retention, after many research I concluded that to increase it is to make sure the user is the main actor in your app.
A way to do that for me is to add
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push notification to motivate the users, send tips, etc.
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challenges, to incentive the user to come back to complete his challenge, I would love gamified this part but I don't have more ideas about that
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social network, as I know losing weight, gain muscle or eat healthy doesn't come in a week, people needs to be commited and during their journey they demotivate themselve because they have nobody to talk to, nobody that we encourage them, the social part could contribute heavily on increasing the engagement and retention of my app which will come later (v2)
Maybe you could add something similar.
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Yes, I think your social networking feature will extremely increase the customer retention rate.
I'm also thinking about implementing something like push notifications and challenges / gamification. I will do that as soon as my 1-day retention rate is high enough. Currently my users don't seem happy enough with the app and uninstall it too quickly. As soon as they keep the app installed for more than one day it makes sense to implement something like push notifications and challenges / gamification.
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Hey!
I just saw your post and wanted to say that I'm very impressed with your ASO work and downloads! I have created a habit tracking app https://proddy.app and would love to exchange some ideas! :)